Hello Tim

Let me see if I can answer some of your questions:
• Closeness to the exchange in Caston controls the speed of your broadband here but I’m generally getting around 5-6Mbps and I’m around 400 metres away but nowhere in Caston is further than 1.5 Km so reception should be good throughout
• Mobile phone can be patchy but appears fine on Vodafone – 3G and T-Mobile are not so good
• No gas in the village
• Mains sewage is in the village but not all houses are connected. Some have bio-digesters which are excellent and rarely need emptying. They also reduce water rates by half as no mains sewage tariff to pay for.
• The village has around 180 homes and a population of 450 or so.
• Caston has a village hall and the Red Lion pub for which refurbishment plans have been submitted.
• Caston has a camera club, an art club, a WI and of course a church. Regular activities such as whist drives and quizzes go on at the village hall. We are currently looking at the possibility of other activities such as a film club and wine tasting etc. If you have a talent or desire to run some kind of activity once you are here you will be actively encouraged to do so.
• There are no shops, the closest is Griston or Rocklands but Watton is just 4 miles away where it is said you can buy anything apart from shoes! Otherwise Dereham and Thetford are around 13 miles each.
• Rocklands is two miles away and has an excellent buiders merchant as well as a very friendly local post office/shop
• Watton has a market each Wednesday.
• We’ve lived in Caston for six years and find it a very friendly place that welcomes newcomers particularly if they wish to take an interest in the village and what goes on.
• You could do a lot worse than moving to Caston.

Good luck with your house hunting.

Unfortunately the 1881 Census of Caston is the one which I have not got. However, I have checked both the 1871 and 1891 censuses and the mill which stood just over the boundary in Carbrooke, but which was to all intents and purposes a part of Caston, does not feature in either of them. Therefore, I think that in 1881 there was only one Mill House, the one beside Caston Windmill.

The windmill belonged to the Wyer family. I noted that in one of the two censuses there was a family other than the Wyer family living there and so it it seems quite feasible that a Ruffles (or Ruffels) family was living in Mill House in 1881.

I have no knowledge of a Ruffles family in Caston because I have not seen the 1881 Census. I have phoned Cyril Ruffles, mentioned in Part Three of 'A History of Caston', and who now lives in Rockland. Cyril lived with his family in Stow Bedon when he was one of our Caston bellringers. He tells me that he has no knowledge of a Ruffles family in Caston and that his father came from a house on the Griston to Carbrooke road. When the airfield was built the house was somewhere near the end of the runway and had to be pulled down. Cyril says that he cannot recall anyone ever saying that the Ruffles ancestors ever lived in Mill House, but of course it is just possible (but I think unlikely) that they never have mentioned it. Cyril was born in 1933, his father in 1900 and so his grandfather was probably born about 1870 and his great grandfather about 1840. It is his great grandfather's generation that we are looking at with his grandfather a boy of ten or eleven in 1881.

Cyril says that when he was young there was a Ruffles family in Carbrooke and another in Watton, but neither was related to his family.

I note that there are a few Ruffles listed in the Phone Book and it might be worthwhile if your correspondent, Mr Brooks, contacted them because one of them just might have done some research on the Ruffles family tree.

I am sorry that I seem to have reached a dead end on this one.

(John Barnes is the author of A History of Caston - ed)

Hi
Thanks for the reponse, I was very interested in the news that the Ruffles family lived in Griston (I know my relatives were from there, not too far from Caston), and my mother remembers her mum did live in a house at the end of the runway of the airfield as mentioned in your reply. This was before she moved to Manea.
In your reply you mentioned that there was still a Ruffles that remembers this.
Maybe I should show him my family tree and figure out where he fits in to that.
Any email address or number would be great.
Thank you
Andrew Brooks (descendant of the Ruffles family).
(Andrew, I think you're on your own with this now but try www.bt.com for phone numbers - ed)

Hi again
I spoke to my mother who in turn got in touch with Cyril.
He told her that the family did live in the Mill House and provided me with even more family members than I originally knew.
Thanks again for pointing me in his direction.

Hi Andrew, I was very interested to read the exchange of communications re: Ruffles Family & Caston/Griston.
Ebenezer Ruffles is my Wife's Grandfather! Also noted ref: to Manea - my Wife's Aunt Dorothy (Ruffles) lives there.
I have recently researched the Ruffles (Ruffels) Family Tree and would be pleased to hear from you.
Regards, Alan Bloomfield

My Great Great Grandfather Samuel Ruffels was the Miller at Caston Tower Mill,working for Mr Edward Wyer the owner of the mill in 1881 when the Census was taken. He lived at the mill house with his wife Sarah & children Henry (16) my
Great Grandfather who I met, & Jane (10)Ebenezer (8) Hepzibah (6)William (6)Cornelias (5) George 91)

Hi Andrew
I am a Ruffles descendent but of a totally different line, have to go back about 5 generations from Samuel Ruffels to get a common ancestor. Would love to hear from you with view to exchanging info.
Regards Sue
suehart57@yahoo.com
(If you click on Andrew's name you will bring up his email address and can write to him direct - Ed)